Carloforte (Part 2)

Disused tuna canning factory   

Having cycled south the previous day, on Thursday 22 June we headed north. Again, the road was very good, with little traffic on it, but this time it climbed a little more steeply in the mid-section between Carloforte and the farther coast. Muscles, a little achy from being unused to cycling the day before, we didn’t enjoy the climb but the freewheeling downhill was great! At the northeast tip of Isola di San Pietro is a disused tuna factory. Cycling past it we were reminded of our visit to Ex-Stablimento Flavio in Favignana and were slightly surprised that, given the celebration of tuna in Carloforte, this factory hadn’t also been turned into a museum.

Tuna nets laid at the northern end of Isola di San Pietro   

And tuna fishing is still going strong in the waters around San Pietro. We had not expected to see tuna nets but from the road on the hill above the disused factory we saw a huge net laid off the north coast. We took a detour to Cala Lunga to try to get a closer and there it was, just as we had seen in pictures and models in Favignana, a modern tuna net with a circular pen for the matanza. Seeing the net was a real surprise as we had believed that all tuna fishery was by long-lining now. Clearly that it not the case. I wonder how they avoid catching dolphins and the wrong fish (ie fish other than tuna)?

Returning to Carloforte we took a quick spin around the salt lake, where previously salt was made.

Now, like the tuna factory, the salt pans lie derelict but they remain a haven for a flock of local flamingos.

The observatory and nearby beach   

Sitting above the salt lake, between it and the sea, is an observatory which also houses Carloforte’s museum. Unfortunatley, it was shut when we visited so we took some pictures and wondered whether or not the observatory was still actually operating as such.

Thursday 22 June was also day one of the GiroTonno tuna festival and back in town the stalls and tented areas along the seafront were finally open. Italians clearly have a very sweet tooth because over half of the stalls were for sweets, liquorice, candied fruits and nougat. The programme of events had live cooking displays (sadly all in Italian) and an intriguing ‘Tuna Competition’ between Mauritius and Peru [Ed: que???] planned for 1830 on the quay. Would this be a fishing competition with the catches landed at that time to be weighed? We weren’t sure but we turned up at the allotted hour to take a look. After 45 mins it was clear that nothing very much was happening and so we headed back to BV for sundowners and dinner. Some time thereafter, lots of noisy announcements and national anthems were played and so we guessed that the event had eventually started.

Banda Bandea in action   

Following all things tuna, the entertainment for the rest of the night, and into the early hours, was provided by Banda Bandea. This was an 8-piece live band who played solidly for the best part of 3 hours(!) and they were excellent. We probably enjoyed their set so much because they played music of ‘our’ era – indeed most of the audience was our age or older – and everyone was singing along. The music was hugely varied: from Dire Straits to Pink Floyd to hard rock and Italian jazz and almost everything in between. There were some cracking guitar solos, great drumming and most of the band sang, with the lead vocals being swapped between about 4 of the band members. And to aid our singalong capability, most of the pieces were sung in English, though we did have some slightly surreal moments when they sang some very well-known hits in Italian (accompanied by the rest of the audience, though we stuck with English!).

Friday: day 2 of the GiroTonno Tuna Festival and Carloforte was starting to get noticeably busier. After an evening of live music, where we had stayed to the last note (at around 0100), it was a bleary eyed and slightly emotional start to the day for us. However, we planned to leave early on Saturday morning and so needed to spend the morning shopping for food ready for our explorations further north in Sardinia. With BV re-stocked we had an ‘Italian afternoon’: a bit of a snooze followed by coffee in a café using the internet. At 1830 another ‘Tuna Competition’ was programmed, this time between Britain and Italy. Turning up promptly on Italian time (1900), about 10 minutes later things started to happen. A glamorous presenter introduced and interviewed judges for what would be the second elimination round in the festival’s tuna cooking competition.

Those that had bought tickets were sitting expectantly at dining tables in an enclosure near the stage and would be able to try the dishes presented to the judges. Under the direction of the presenters they had a practice vote waving their score battens and then the competition actually started. All stood for the British national anthem and the Brit chef (who seemed to speak remarkably good Italian) paraded his masterpiece and explained its concept to the judges and audience.

It’s a shame that we had not twigged what the tuna competition was all about and bought tickets because it would have been nice to have tried the dishes. They looked to be very good indeed but, in hindsight, it would also have meant a 4-hour session of our not understanding the judges and presenters talking in Italian, followed by 10 minutes of enjoying the food. We didn’t stay to see the Italian chef present his masterpieces but whilst we were eating dinner we heard cheering and (we think) the strains of the Italian nation anthem so we can only assume that he beat the Brit. The final elimination round, later that evening, was between French and Japanese chefs. We have no idea how that went or, indeed which of the nations made it into the 2 finals. But somewhere in those finals would have been either Peru or Mauritius (from the previous day’s elimination). We’re still puzzling that one!

And on the subject of eating tuna: we had searched all the fish stalls in the town but, strangely, they were all fresh out of fresh tuna. Can’t imagine why. So, on Friday we had to make do with a gratin of tomato, fennel, Greek riso pasta and tinned tuna. It wouldn’t have won prizes in the tuna competition but it did us very nicely for dinner. Our fresh tuna was on order and we would be able to collect it the following morning, first thing.

Carloforte, Sardinia, Italy